Bishop David Oyedepo- Founder Of Living Faith Church [Winners]

David Olaniyi Oyedepo is a Nigerian preacher who was born on September 27, 1954. He started the Living Faith Church Worldwide and is the head of the Faith Tabernacle in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. Winners’ Chapel International is another name for the church.

The Winners’ Chapel International network of churches is spread out over more than 300 places. It has churches in all 36 states of Nigeria and in cities in 45 African countries, as well as in Dubai, the UK, Europe, Asia, the US, and Canada.

People have said that Oyedepo was one of the first people to start the charismatic Christian movement in Africa. They have also said that he is one of the most important preachers to come from Nigeria. Forbes magazine named him the richest preacher in Nigeria in 2011. He is the Chancellor of both Covenant University and Landmark University.

Life Journey

David Olaniyi Oyedepo was born in Osogbo, Nigeria, on September 27, 1954. He is from Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, but he was born in Osogbo.

He grew up in a home with people of different faiths. His Muslim father, Ibrahim, was a doctor. His mother, Dorcas, was a member of the Holy Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church (C&S), a part of the Nigerian Aladura movement.

In Osogbo, his grandma raised him. She took him to early morning prayers and taught him about the good things about being a Christian. She also taught him the value of giving back to the church.

Oyedepo went to the Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin to study design. He also got a PhD in Human Development from Honolulu University in Hawaii, US.

Oyedepo worked for a short time in Ilorin for the Federal Ministry of Housing before leaving to focus on religious work.

Ministry

Oyedepo says that he was “born again” in 1969 because of his high school teacher, Betty Lasher (18 June 1930–26 August 2022), who took an interest in him.

He said that God told him in an 18-hour vision in May 1981 to teach the word of faith to free the world from the devil’s control. This is the first vision that led to the founding of the Living Faith Church World Wide (LFCWW), which was first called Liberation Faith Hour Ministries in 1981.

On September 17, 1983, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, commissioned the new church and made David and his wife, Florence Abiola Akano, also known as Faith Abiola Oyedepo, pastors. Five years later, Oyedepo was made a bishop by the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, who had been his teacher all his life.

Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel International, began in Kaduna. In July 1989, Oyedepo moved the church to Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, to start a new branch. He said that God told him to reach out to the people of Lagos.

Forbes says that Oyedepo has a net worth of more than US$150 million, which makes him the richest minister in the world.

The church owns four private jets and a number of buildings, some of which are in London and the United States. Oyedepo is a writer and editor who has written and published more than 70 books and magazines.

He is the head of Dominion printing House (DPH), which is part of the ministry and is in charge of printing. Over 4 million copies of DPH have been sold so far. Through Oyedepo, Covenant University, Faith Academy, and Kingdom Heritage Model Schools have been set up to prepare young people to make a difference in the world. The building of a third university, Calabar, Cross River, Nigeria’s Crown University, is already under way.

In 1998, Oyedepo said that God told him to build a new base for the commission because more people were coming to pray. This led to Oyedepo’s church buying the first 530-acre (2.1 km2) building, which is called Canaanland and is the center. It is where the “Faith Tabernacle,” which can hold up to 50,000 people, is located.The Guinness Book of World Records also wrote about this.

Within a year, the building was finished. There were also reports that this building was built without any debt.[14][15] This building with 50,000 seats was opened on September 18, 1999, when previous President Olusegun Obasanjo was in office.

Canaanland is in Ota, Ogun state, and it is a 5,000-acre (20 km2) estate and campus. It has a 50,000-seat auditorium, the church secretariat, the church’s youth chapel, a primary school called Kingdom heritage model school, a full boarding mission secondary school called Faith Academy, with more than 1,500 students, and the Covenant University facilities, which have rooms for over 7,000 students who live in ultra-modern dorms and have all the Canaanland campus also has businesses that make money for the church, such as a bakery, a plant for making bottled water, a gas station, several restaurants and shops, as well as homes for the more than 2,000 people who work for the church and guesthouses.

There are also four banks on this Estate. Three are branches of private banks outside of the Estate, and one is a community and microfinance bank run by the Church. As of 2012, Canaanland as a whole, which includes a planned community of 15,000 homes called Canaan City, had grown to 17,000 acres.

The Ministry’s biggest yearly meeting, called Shiloh, takes place every December in the same Faith Tabernacle. Thousands of people from all over the world usually attend. The ministry is building the “Ark,” a 100,000-seat auditorium that is said to have the biggest span of any building in the world.

Due of what Oyedepo teaches, he is often put in a group called the Word of Faith Movement.[20] He has said that Kenneth Copeland, Gloria Copeland, the late Kenneth Hagin, E. W. Kenyon, T. L. Osborn, Smith Wigglesworth, and famous Nigerian preachers Enoch Adeboye and the late Benson Idahosa were his teachers.[21][22][23] People have said that Oyedepo is a speaker of the prosperity gospel, just like many of the people who have influenced him.

The Word of Faith Bible Institute is a Bible training school run by Winners’ Chapel International. Both members and non-members can take part in it to learn about Christian principles and to train leaders and future pastors. The school is run by the Church’s main groups.

David Oyedepo Ministries International (DOMI) is led by Oyedepo, who is the president. DOMI is the organization that includes Living Faith Church World Wide, which is a global network of churches, World Mission Agency (WMA), which is the church’s global missionary arm, Dominion Publishing House, which is the church’s publishing arm, Covenant University, and the Social Development Missions projects, which include hospitals, maternity homes, schools, and other places.

Oyedepo has criticized graft in all of Africa and bad government leadership.

Marital Life

Oyedepo married Florence Abiola Akano, now known as Faith Oyedepo, in August 1982 and gave birth to four beautiful childrean together named, David Jr., Isaac, Love, and Joyce are their four children.

Kenneth Copeland made David Oyedepo Jr. and Isaac Oyedepo pastors in May 2007.

David Oyedepo Jr. and his wife Kemi used to be the pastors of the London Branch of the Church. Now, he is the resident pastor of Faith Tabernacle in Ota, while Isaac Oyedepo and his wife Ayomitide are the pastors of Winners’ Chapel International in Mitchellville, Maryland, in the United States.

Stephen Ogah, who is also a preacher at Winners’ Chapel, is married to his first daughter, Love. Joyce Priscilla is the last child and the second daughter. She married Abimbola Abodunrin in 2020.